The ‘unlock’ that they are talking about here is to unlock your phone’s SIM to be able to be used with another carrier’s service.
This does not mean that the bootloader is unlocked and you will not be able to replace the OS. You will still be stuck with Verizon’s spyware-laden release of Android even when you move to a new carrier.
So, buy your devices directly from the manufacturer and make sure that the phone supports the ability to unlock (and re-lock!) the bootloader. If you need a recommendation, get a current generation Pixel and install GrapheneOS or if you won’t give up Google Play and dependent apps, LineageOS.
Yes, this is great advice. I’ve looked into GrapheneOS, and I’ve been wondering if I could use Google play apps at all on it? Is there a way to spoof that service?
Yes, it has a sandboxed Google Play service and the Play Store app that you can enable which let’s you access apps with hard Google dependencies.
If you want to use it as a regular Android phone it works for everything that doesn’t require Google’s hardware attestation (so, no using your phone for NFC credit card payments mostly). This limitation also affects LineageOS.
The installation is easy too. GrapheneOS has a WebUSB installation process that is basically plugging your unlocked phone into USB, allowing GrapheneOS WebUSB access, and pressing go. It takes maybe 10 minutes. (I went into it expecting manual jailbreak-level difficulty and was very surprised at how easy it was)
There’s a VERY important distinction here.
The ‘unlock’ that they are talking about here is to unlock your phone’s SIM to be able to be used with another carrier’s service.
This does not mean that the bootloader is unlocked and you will not be able to replace the OS. You will still be stuck with Verizon’s spyware-laden release of Android even when you move to a new carrier.
So, buy your devices directly from the manufacturer and make sure that the phone supports the ability to unlock (and re-lock!) the bootloader. If you need a recommendation, get a current generation Pixel and install GrapheneOS or if you won’t give up Google Play and dependent apps, LineageOS.
Yes, this is great advice. I’ve looked into GrapheneOS, and I’ve been wondering if I could use Google play apps at all on it? Is there a way to spoof that service?
Yes, it has a sandboxed Google Play service and the Play Store app that you can enable which let’s you access apps with hard Google dependencies.
If you want to use it as a regular Android phone it works for everything that doesn’t require Google’s hardware attestation (so, no using your phone for NFC credit card payments mostly). This limitation also affects LineageOS.
Awesome! Thank you for this! 🤝
You’re welcome.
The installation is easy too. GrapheneOS has a WebUSB installation process that is basically plugging your unlocked phone into USB, allowing GrapheneOS WebUSB access, and pressing go. It takes maybe 10 minutes. (I went into it expecting manual jailbreak-level difficulty and was very surprised at how easy it was)